[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Senate Rules on Nominations

  Given the numerous challenges we face here and around the globe, it 
is important that we swiftly confirm not just Mike Pompeo but the 
President's other nominees. Many of these positions still remain vacant 
because our colleagues across the aisle have, frankly, wasted hours and 
days obstructing the confirmation process. It is way beyond any normal 
way that this has been approached.
  Right now, we are in the middle of a 30-hour debate. I don't see that 
many people debating. We had a big debate yesterday--at least time was 
reserved--at the insistence of the minority. I think the debate was 
about 28 minutes out of the 20 hours between the time the nominee could 
have been voted on, and he would have gotten the same number of votes 
he got almost 20 hours later, after 28 minutes of debate.
  President Trump's nominees have faced 88 cloture votes. That is the 
time we are in now, where we have a cloture vote and then we have this 
long period of time for theoretical debate that doesn't occur. Those 
nominees have faced 28 cloture votes compared to 24 total cloture votes 
in the first entire 2 years of the 6 previous Presidents combined. So 
there was an average of four cloture votes for those Presidents in 
their first 2 years. President Trump has had 88 cloture votes in less 
than a year and a half.
  Something is happening differently than has ever happened before. It 
takes an average of 85 days for the President's nominees to be 
confirmed once they get to the Senate, 20 days longer than President 
Obama's nominees. The other difference with President Obama's nominees 
is, we didn't stop all the work in the Senate during the 60 days that 
we were having hearings, getting the nomination ready for the floor. We 
didn't do exactly what we are doing right now, which is fully taking 
advantage of every right the minority has to insist on debate. The only 
thing missing in that debate is the debate. At the rate we are going, 
it would take more than 9 years to confirm all of the President's 
nominees. This would be 9 years of his 4-year term. If he didn't 
nominate anybody else, this would be longer than the President would 
have if he were elected to two terms. It is unacceptable. It is 
ridiculous. It denies the President that counsel he needs of senior 
leaders, but it also denies the Senate the floor time it needs to deal 
with the issues.
  If people have watched the Senate in the last several years, and 
particularly if you have watched it over the last several months, the 
quorum call that we so often have--the one I suggested we remove 
ourselves from--is what you see when you turn on the Senate because we 
are waiting for a vote to happen, the debate of which does not occur.
  So, later today, the Rules Committee I chair will be considering 
Senator Lankford's legislation to address these delays in the 
confirmation process. All Senator Lankford's resolution does is to make 
permanent the same rules Senate Democrats agreed to in 2013, when they 
were in the majority. While they were in the majority, a majority of 
Republicans and Democrats all agreed we would confirm President Obama's 
nominees with debate that more nearly met the likely debate for that 
office.
  Senator Lankford's resolution would simply reduce debate for most 
executive branch offices from 30 hours down to 8 hours and for district 
judges from 30 hours to 2 hours. By the way, we don't have to use those 
2 hours or those 8 hours either. If there is no debate, we should 
always move to the vote, but at least the debate time still gives the 
minority the protection that traditionally they have had. When you 
abuse the minority protections in the Senate, that is when those 
protections tend to go away.
  The resolution still would have 30 hours of debate for the Supreme 
Court, for circuit courts, the courts of appeal for all the district 
courts, and for Cabinet-level nominees.
  We are not opposed to debating nominees and really debating them. I 
think the opposition here is we are opposed to not debating and using 
up time simply as a delay tactic, where the result would be the same, 
whether you voted in 30 minutes or 30 hours.
  Now, remember, this is the same framework the Senate passed by a vote 
of 78 to 16 in 2013. Fifty-two Democrats voted in favor of this exact 
same resolution in 2013, including the current minority leader. Senator 
Lankford's proposal would make that framework permanent. It would allow 
the Senate to expedite the confirmation process for the President's 
well-qualified nominees. It would also allow the Senate to get to the 
other work that the American people expect the Senate to do and have 
every reason to expect the Senate to do.
  So, today and tomorrow, we will continue this process of waiting for 
the vote on the nominee to be Secretary of State; again, a vote that, 
prior to recent times, would have occurred right after the report was 
out and Members knew what they were going to do. So, hopefully, we will 
begin to look at these rules and our work more seriously.